I cannot believe that just happened

Armando Galarraga was one out from the 21st perfect game in major league history tonight against the Indians. One out away. He got Jason Donald to hit a fairly routine ground ball between first and second. First baseman Miguel Cabrera fielded it, set his feet and delivered a strong throw to Galarraga, who was covering first. The ball got there, and it landed in the webbing of Galarraga's glove a full step before Donald reached the bag. First base umpire Jim Joyce called him safe.

He called him safe.

Armando Galarraga just pitched a perfect game, except it won't go into the record books as a perfect game because the first base umpire blew a call on the last out of the game. THE FIRST BASE UMPIRE BLEW A CALL ON THE LAST OUT OF WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A PERFECT GAME.

I know a lot of fans, even when their team is on the losing side of a no-hitter, will root for the pitcher to get it. I am not one of those fans — I would rather see my team break up the no-hitter. And according to how this game will be recorded in the books, I did see my team break up the no-hitter. But I would much, MUCH rather have seen this go into the books as a perfect game than see it broken up on a bad call at first base.

Ladies and gentlemen, baseball NEEDS instant replay. As it stands now, it's only allowed on home run calls. That's baloney. Commissioner Bud Selig is on record as saying he doesn't want it expanded, and as long as Bud doesn't want it expanded, it's not going to expand. But Bud is going to see what happened in this game. Armando Galarraga lost his perfect game because of a bad call. How can he allow that to happen?

I feel really sorry for Jim Joyce. I can't imagine what he was looking at, but I'm sure he made the call he thought was correct, unless he somehow bet a buttload of money that Armando Galarraga wouldn't pitch a perfect game. When he sees that replay, he's going to be sick. Come to think of it, he's probably seen it by now, and he's probably not going to get much sleep tonight, because that's a big damn call to get wrong. He drew the wrath of the entire Tigers organization and the home crowd, and understandably so.

The one guy who took it in stride was Galarraga, who simply smiled and went back to work, retiring the next hitter, Trevor Crowe, on another routine ground ball. You've got to hand it to him — he pitched the game of his life, and appears to be happy with the victory, perfect game or not.